Millennial Entrepreneurship: Use Your Difference to Make a Difference

The epicness of this Millennial Entrepreneurship Series continues with Tayo Rockson, aka the soon-to-be male version of Oprah. 🙂

Tayo is a Third Culture Kid, hustlepreneur, and millennial multipassionate ‘using his difference to make a difference’ and paving the way for other millennials to do the same. He’s been featured in The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur and has lived in five different countries across four continents. You might know him from his podcast As Told by Nomads, or his blog.

I’ll state the obvious here: all of this is very impressive and I was beyond thrilled to have the chance to chat with Tayo. And then the not-so-obvious: I sort of have a little bit of a mini-crush on Tayo, let’s be real, with this resume, who wouldn’t?

Anyway! On with our chat!

*Note: This conversation is summarized and paraphrased to communicate the essence of the ideas & topics discussed. Quotes from Tayo are highlighted in italics with quotation marks.

CW: I’m so happy we got the chance to chat Tayo, I heard a bit of your chat with Rachel on The Confused Millennial, Inspiring Millennials Series and immediately wanted to reach out to you. You have such an amazing story.

TR: Thank you for your kind words! Rachel is great, I was happy to be on her series, happy to be talking with you too.

CW: So let’s get right into it! Tell me about what you do and shed some light on your journey – I know you probably get this question a lot.

TR: I do but that’s fine. *laugh*

I’m the editor of BrandEdU and CEO of UYD Media. Both initiatives are really about equipping millennials to make their difference in the world. BrandEdU is specifically  helping millennials to  figure out how to get into careers they are passionate about.  UYD Media is a media an platform that inspires millennials to communicate across cultures and use their differences to make a difference.

As to my journey, I’ve always been a son of different cultures. My father is a diplomat, so growing up, I lived in 5 different countries. As I began to assimilate, aspects of those cultures become a part of my identity. I was always the kid who looked differently than he was supposed to sound or sounded different from what he was supposed to look like.

One person who stuck out to me though in terms of role models and personalities was Oprah. She told stories that made an impact and affected me at such a young age. I felt she was really making a difference and what she did in her studio in Chicago really resonated with me. I would watch her when throughout my middle school years in between my Nickelodeon and my Disney. After constantly getting inspired by the stories on her show, a fire was lit under me.  Fast-forward to my post-college years where, after receiving rejections from all 85 jobs I’d applied for, I ended up in a job that wasn’t fulfilling. I wasn’t making a difference at all. I wasn’t doing anything I said I would do, I wasn’t telling stories that made an impact.

This lack of fulfillment really hit home for me when I got into a serious car accident that nearly took my life.  Nearly losing your life puts things into perspective, you know? I made up my mind right then and there to take action. Up until that point,I wasn’t doing anything I’d wanted to do with my life, so now, I was going to go to New York and figure how to make my difference in the world.

I started sharing my story, built a network of other millennials and Third Culture Kids, started producing the podcast and that led to more and more opportunities. Now I’m here, still hustling and telling stories I’m not where I want to be yet though.

CW: WOW. That’s amazing. 85 rejections! How do you come back from that?

TR: Yeah! It’s crazy. The accident really jerked me. I realized that I was dying while I was living. Getting 85 rejections affected me because I believed them and thought I was no good. However, my accident made me realize that I had to live while I was alive. That was enough of an incentive for me.

You know there are so many narratives out there about who millennials are, aren’t and should be. And sometimes many of us become so afraid of being anything, or starting anything because sometimes we believe those false narratives.. That’s become a big part of what I want to do with UYD Media – inspire millennials to go after their ambitions with everything they’ve got and really live while they’re alive. That’s the essence of my mission statement “use your difference to make a difference”.

CW: I love that bit about really live while we’re alive. You’re right, we can get so caught up in what we are and aren’t supposed to be.

Speaking of what we are and aren’t supposed to be, do you think millennials have a different entrepreneurship experience when compared with Gen X-ers or Baby Boomers?

TR: I think it’s similar in a lot of ways, but one major difference is the low barrier to entry. With all the information and tech in the world, anyone really can learn the basics of entrepreneurship. It’s all become very accessible.

CW: What do you think are some of the major challenges millennial entrepreneurs face in light of this increased accessibility?

TR: I don’t know if this is a challenge shared by all millennials but this is just something I have noticed as an observer. I think that even with all the accessibility in terms of technology, there’s still limited access to opportunity. When you think about capital and investors and there’s just not enough diversity. I’d love to see more women and people of color in VC firms. There’s not enough diversity. This lack of diversity results in many doors of opportunity being closed.

There’s also a lot of  fear of failure and that stiffles ideation. Even, with  all the businesses and start-ups popping up nowadays, millennials can get caught up in whether an idea has already been taken or getting it “just right” before they launch their idea. This prevents us from starting or going after our dreams in a big way. These are some challenges I have noticed. Just my opinion though. Not necessarily fact.

CW: That perfectionism thing is very difficult to shake. I think it’s also fear of failure too, we don’t want to get it wrong, especially considering all the pressures and stereotypes that are already on us a generation.

TR: Definitely. It’s all risky.

CW: If you got the chance to sit down with your biggest role models – millennial entrepreneur or otherwise – who would those persons be and what would you ask them?

TR: Good question! *laugh*

I’d want to sit down with the late Nelson Mandela, Oprah (of course), Richard Branson and Seth Godin.

I’d ask them what they felt at their lowest points and how they handled their deepest failures in business and life in general. I’d also ask them how they learned to celebrate themselves. I think that’s something that I haven’t quite learned  how to do well enough and so I’d like to grow in that area.

Make sure to check out my last post in our series of Millennial Entrepreneurship with Contrecia Tharpe on “Changing the Way We Work“.

Want more Tayo? Need a bit of career guidance or inspiration? Check out BrandEdU and As Told by Nomads! You can also follow Tayo on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.